The Tri-Nations series in the Netherlands has reached the penultimate match which takes place in The Hague on Thursday when the two touring sides meet as Ireland go up against Scotland in game five of the tournament.
Scotland gave their chances of winning the tournament a shot in the arm with a win over the Netherlands on Wednesday whereas Ireland can eliminate them should they come out on top here. Getting ready for the World Cup is the overriding aim though.
Ireland
Ireland head into their third match of the four in this competition for them having won one and had a washout in the other. They know that should they win this match they will have won the tournament with a match to spare where they can really rotate their stock and look right ahead to the World Cup. At the minute they will look to balance getting game time and form into as many players as possible while winning games to build confidence.
Ireland edged out the Netherlands in the only match that they have managed to play in the competition so far. We didn’t really see the best of their batting in that match by any means so they will be looking for a much stronger showing with the bat in hand here. Their bowlers did turn up in that game and defended a score which looked below par so they will be aiming for similar in order to get over the line in this one.
Scotland
After being comprehensively beaten by the Netherlands in their opening outing in this competition, the Scots got their revenge with an even more emphatic victory when the two sides met on Wednesday. That should give them plenty of confidence heading into this game, which is probably bigger for them than it is for Ireland as it is their last game before they head to the Caribbean for their World Cup campaign which begins in just over a week.
Scotland still haven’t massively pulled up trees with the bat in this competition but it might just be that conditions are tougher to score than they look to the naked eye from afar. They bowled pretty well for 15 overs in their opening match and then bowled very well in the game on Wednesday so that department of their game looks to be in good working order. The one negative they do have to overcome here is having to play again barely 15 hours after their last game.
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Team News
Ireland are likely to be at full strength in terms of the squad they have available to them for this match. There is still no official word that Josh Little has arrived even though his IPL campaign ended last week so they could be without him.
Scotland might need to make changes for this match with the short turnaround between the Netherlands game and this one. Michael Jones might well return to partner George Munsey at the top of the innings.
Betting
I think this is a tough ask for Scotland. You hardly ever see a schedule as brutal as this where they are playing so soon after finishing a match and getting back down from a pretty good win and then going again is never exactly easy. The other thing is they might be using this one to give their fringe players an outing before they get to the Caribbean so it is hard not to like Ireland in this match. One problem with that is they are around 8/15 to win it, which is understandable.
I really do think we could see Scotland struggle in this match. Their batting hasn’t really got going in this tournament apart from that George Munsey innings on Wednesday and even then he was scratching around until for some unknown reason the Dutch fed him with left-arm spin. If Ireland can take care of him early then there doesn’t look like there is much in this Scotland batting unit. Ireland bat deep so I don’t see them batting poorly too many times here and so I think there is mileage in not just taking Ireland to win this match but to win it by at least 4.5 wickets if they are chasing or 12.5 runs if they have posted a score.
Tips
Back Ireland (-4.5wickets/12.5runs) to beat Scotland for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
